Most service industries still invest resources in discounts
or a large number of promotions, and neglect the
importance of building relationships. This study aims to
offer some insight into the promotional strategies of the
airline industry for maintaining customer loyalty, and to
contribute to research into relationship marketing.
The results of this study can offer a more complete
reference for academia and industry when considering
promotional effects. From the viewpoint of customers,
promo-ional types can be divided into two factors –
Transaction-orientated promotion and relationshiporientated
promotion. Relationship-orientated promotion
can retain customer loyalty by increasing their
satisfaction, trust and commitment, and conflicts with the
view that promotion has short-term effects only.
By integrating the literature conjectures and the
research results, it is found that promotion can indeed be
divided into transaction-orientated promotion, which has
short-term effects (only once), and relationship-orientated
promotion, which puts customers’ benefits first and
promotes the maintenance of a long-term relationship.
Furthermore, in practice, many industries can be found to
use both promotional models, such as banking, telecoms,
department stores, etc. Therefore, this study can be
widely applied to industries, which use both promotional
models. This study also has critical referable value for
practice in setting up customer loyalty programs.